


A Little Faith

by JaneTheNya



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Gen, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:28:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26277910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaneTheNya/pseuds/JaneTheNya
Summary: A young Kasumi Yoshizawa attends an introductory meeting with her new therapist.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	A Little Faith

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Daxiefraxie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daxiefraxie/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Deja Vu](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20826896) by [Daxiefraxie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daxiefraxie/pseuds/Daxiefraxie), [JaneTheNya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaneTheNya/pseuds/JaneTheNya). 



> In P5R, I loved Kasumi very much! But the third semester twists with her made me very uncomfy and I shied away from Kasumi content for awhile. But! I've been binging my good friend Daxie's fic and I loved the way she writes Kasumi and it inspired me to do a little offshoot Deja Vu fanfic of my own. I had a lot of fun with it, and I hope my fellow Deja Vu fans will enjoy it, too!

Kasumi performed a small, anxious dance as she stood in front of the wooden door with the gold-looking plaque that glistened a bit, reflecting the light of the office’s overhead lights; nervously bounding from one foot to the other, energy not settling, building up courage, hesitating.

The woman at the front desk had said to just knock on the door, and the man would answer, and he would bring her in. Despite knowing that, she hesitated. Her head rocked from left to right in rhythm with her steps.

Eventually, the door opened on its own. A chaotic-looking man rushing out, messy brown hair and a scraggly beard, a light blue button-up that was wrinkled all over, tucked messily into brown dress pants.

“Hey, did you say that my next patient was comi-“ the man skidded to a stop as he noticed Kasumi, nearly falling backwards and giving a slight yelp as he caught himself on a cabinet.

Kasumi jumped backward, hands immediately covering her face. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” she pleaded, terrified. “I was gonna knock, I’m sorry, but I… I, um, ahh…”

The man knelt down, flashing a gentle smile, and holding out a hand, waiting for her to give him a sign he could touch her. She hesitated, eyes darting away, and he retracted it. “Hey,” he said in a quiet tone. “It’s alright. I’m the one who should’ve looked where I was going. I almost barreled right over you!” He gave a small laugh, coaxing Kasumi to smile as well. He wasn’t mad. “Come on inside, let’s see if I can make it up to you. Okay?”

Kasumi nodded, following him inside, where he motioned toward a couch on one side of a glass coffee table before taking his seat on a chair on the other side. Kasumi watched him blankly, and he motioned to the couch again, giving a nudge of his head as well.

“That’s a couch,” Kasumi stated matter-of-factly. A brief pause, and the cue clicked in her head. “Oh. Is it okay if I have a seat?”

The man nodded. “Now then, let’s see if we can’t get off on a better foot.” He reached over and opened a cooler resting on the table, taking out two small cartons of apple juice. Kasumi recognized them, she often had one included in her school lunches. “Would you like one?” the man offered gently, holding one toward her.

Kasumi was silent for awhile, hands idly bunching her hair up to create a pseudo-ponytail behind her, held in place only by her hand, then falling back to her sides. “Um…” she finally began, searching for words. “Did you… touch it?”

The man nodded. “I’m sorry, I did. You’re welcome to get one for yourself if you’d rather, just reach in there.”

She paused again, watching him set the other carton of juice next to his first on the table. She looked at the cooler for a moment. “That's… all clean?”

He nodded. “I promise. It’s clean. But you don’t need to take one if it makes you uncomfortable. If you don’t want to, you don’t need to. It won’t hurt my feelings.”

She paused, dropping her hair and raising a hand to her chin to consider it. Eventually, she reached silently over the table and into the cooler, carefully removing a carton of apple juice, and setting it next to her on the couch, without opening it. The man didn’t seem to judge her, just watching her with a smile.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, miss. My name’s Maruki,” the man said. He had started speaking more slowly and calmly, and that was good. Kasumi had enough time to focus on each of his words, and she didn’t feel rushed to respond. It was calming. She was reminded that people liked it when she visibly showed that she liked what they were doing, so they could keep doing it, so she shifted her neutral expression into a smile.

“Hel-lo,” she began, stopping quickly to take a deep breath. This was scary.

“Hey, hey. No rush, don’t push yourself. I know it can be kinda scary in here. I’ve got pillows and stuffed animals if you’d like one to hold while you’re in here.” Maruki gave another gentle smile, and Kasumi nodded.

“My name is… ahh…” she froze again. She wasn’t sure if she could go through with it. Maybe it was best if she didn’t. She didn’t want to turn this nice-seeming man against her.

“Kasumi Yoshizawa, right?” He gave a patient smile. She nodded, silently. “You’re very pretty. And tall, too, like a model-”

“No.”

Maruki looked taken aback, but he quickly shifted his expression of surprise into a patient smile, inviting her to continue. Kasumi felt a bit bad about cutting him off, she knew that was rude. She rose her legs on top of the couch, resting in front of her torso, and hugged them in her arms. “No,” she repeated.

There was a momentary silence as Maruki seemed to pinpoint what had upset her in that sentence, then picked up a clipboard resting by him on the couch, and wrote something down. “Don’t be nervous,” he assumed, somehow reading Kasumi’s mind. “This isn’t to get you in trouble. Nothing you say leaves this room. I just want to remember what you like and don’t like so I don’t make you feel bad.”

She paused for a minute, thinking that over. “Nothing… leaves the room?” He nodded. “I can say whatever I want?” He nodded again.

“I’ll only be obligated- or, I’ll only have to tell your mom if it’s something that could get you or someone else hurt. Okay?” Kasumi nodded. That sounded like a fair deal.

She paused again, thinking something over. “Um,” she started. He nodded, offering to let her continue. “Does gymnastics count as something that could hurt me?” He gave a little smile, and shook his head.

“Nope. So long as you’re being safe, it’s fine to talk about.”

She nodded a couple times, considering that. “I like gymnastics. I have a lot of energy and I like doing jumps and tumbles and stuff. And um.” She was quiet for a minute, deciding if she should go on, hand absently fiddling with the plastic wrapping of her juice box’s straw. “I like the outfits the girls wear in gymnastics events. I wanna wear one of those.”

The man smiled, and gave a nod. “I think you’d look great in one of those,” he said.

“No you don’t,” Kasumi fired back immediately. She immediately looked away. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright,” he said, a concerned look on his face. “But why do you think I don’t?”

“You don’t see a girl when you look at me,” she mumbled into her knees. “No one does. They all pretend, but I can tell. They’ve all got the same tone in their voices.”

There was a glint in Maruki’s eyes; a look of sadness, maybe, but his smile remained. “Kasumi, I promise to never lie to you. You have my word.”

She hugged her legs tighter. “Are you sure? Do… do I have to not lie to you also?”

He shook his head. “I’d like it if you didn’t lie, because I want to help. But don’t worry if you accidentally say the wrong thing, or you remember something wrong.”

“Remember something wrong…” she repeated, almost whispering, hand slowly covering her face. “Can you… um… um… Mister Maruki?” He looked at her, smile turned to a concerned gaze, nodding for her to continue. “Can you… help me remember something?”

He nodded firmly. “I can, if you want. We can work on your fears about your appearance too, if you want to.” She nodded.

“Yes please. I wanna feel like a girl. I want to be a girl really badly.” She wasn’t sure what about the man made her comfortable saying it, but it felt good to say.

“Great,” he said, writing something else down on his clipboard before standing. “I’m going to bring your mother in to talk for a bit, but I promise I won’t share anything you just told me. We’re just going to do the boring adult stuff, planning for when you’ll come back and see me again.”

“Soon,” she said firmly.

He nodded, smiling. “I’ll be sure to tell your mother as early as possible. Do you want me to pretend it was my idea, or tell her it was yours?”

She paused. “Your… your idea.” He nodded.

“No shame here, Kasumi. Remember that. It’s absolutely okay to tell me anything that makes you uncomfortable. I’m happy when you do, it means we can get along better.” Kasumi realized that after she rejected his initial touch, he hadn’t tried at all to touch her again. That was good, she thought. She liked that.

Eventually, she realized what she was meant to be doing, and stood. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

He opened the door slowly. “No worries at all, there’s no rush! My lunch break is up next, I have plenty of time.”

“Thank you for being in your office with me also in it,” she said, tripping over her words a bit. “I hope you have a good lunch.”

She made her way out the door of the little office, holding the small carton of apple juice in her hand. After a moment of contemplation, she tore open the straw and poked it into the box.


End file.
